Thursday, June 8, 2017

Palestinian filmmaker Hala Gabriel seeks support for documentary on ’48 destruction of Tantura

Palestinian filmmaker Hala Gabriel seeks support for documentary on ’48 destruction of Tantura

Activism
Stephen Shenfield on June 8, 2017


Still frame from Hala Gabriel's film "On the Road to Tantura."




Readers of Mondoweiss may recall two interviews that I conducted with freelance film director Hala Gabriel, who for the last seven years has been working on a documentary about the Palestinian fishing village of Tantura, the massacre that took place there in 1948, and the subsequent experiences of the survivors, most of whom found refuge in Syria but have now been displaced again. The first interview, “On the Road to Tantura,” appeared on August 27, 2015 and the second interview, “The struggle of refugees in Lebanon, Greece, and Germany,” on June 9, 2016.


Filmmaker Hala Gabriel.

Hala is herself a child of Tantura exiles who came to the United States. She embarked on this project mainly in order to preserve the memories of the older generation of her family and other former residents of Tantura. Her quest has taken her to Palestine/Israel and to refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, and various European countries.

The basic work on the documentary has now been done. Hala and her producer Talal Jabari have a solid 70-minute “rough cut” of the film. However, there remains significant work to be done in order to complete the project in the near future at the same high standard of professionalism as they have maintained since the start of the project. They aim to release the film by the 70th anniversary of the Nakba and in time for the 2018 film festival circuit.

To speed up the work a “crowd-funding” appeal has been launched on Kickstarter. This means that would-be donors make pledges, but the money is collected only if a set target is reached by a certain date. The goal is to obtain pledges totaling $55,000 by Tuesday, July 4, 2017.

As of today (Thursday, June 8, 2017) just over one fifth of this sum has been pledged.







Still frame from Hala Gabriel’s film “On the Road to Tantura.”


Still frame from Hala Gabriel’s film “On the Road to Tantura.”

For further information, including a preview of the film, please go to the Kickstarter page. Here you will be able to make your pledge and see how it contributes to progress toward the goal. Thank you.

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/06/palestinian-documentary-destruction/

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